Acting president Álvaro García Linera today protested that the President, Evo Morales, is sequestered in Europe, and said he is being blackmailed to get passage from the continent and return to his country. In the last few hours only Italy and Spain have maintained their denial of airspace for the presidential aircraft on suspicion that Edward Snowden, former agent of the CIA, is on board.

"President Evo Morales, president of the Bolivians, is today sequestered in Europe; we want to tell the peoples of the world that he has been sequestered by imperialism and is detained in Europe. He is the first person so held by imperialism because they won't let him cross European airspace to return to our country," García said in the Government Palace at about 10:35 p.m., accompanied by the cabinet of ministers.

The presidential plane was blocked from entering French and Portuguese airspace, Chancellor David Choquehuanca said this afternoon. Spain and Italy later joined those countries. At 10:30 p.m. Defence Minister Rubén Saavedra confirmed to Bolivia TV that France and Portugal revoked their decision. The plane had to make an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria, due to a lack of fuel, Garcia said.

The acting president added: "We know that this barrier to the journey of President Evo has been created by the US government, which is afraid of a peasant, a native, an honest man who defends the sovereignty of our country; it's the peak of a decadent imperial politics, appealing to terror, to fear, to the police control of their own people, of the world, and today of the first native president."

Even making allowances for the rhetoric, it's a pretty breathtaking insult to Bolivia in particular and Latin America in general, and it seems likely to create a lot of friction over much of the hemisphere. And now that I think of it, like the bogus vaccination campaign that the CIA launched in Pakistan to find Bin Laden, this could have repercussions for international public health campaigns all over the Americas.

Acting president Álvaro García Linera today protested that the President, Evo Morales, is sequestered in Europe, and said he is being blackmailed to get passage from the continent and return to his country. In the last few hours only Italy and Spain have maintained their denial of airspace for the presidential aircraft on suspicion that Edward Snowden, former agent of the CIA, is on board.

"President Evo Morales, president of the Bolivians, is today sequestered in Europe; we want to tell the peoples of the world that he has been sequestered by imperialism and is detained in Europe. He is the first person so held by imperialism because they won't let him cross European airspace to return to our country," García said in the Government Palace at about 10:35 p.m., accompanied by the cabinet of ministers.

The presidential plane was blocked from entering French and Portuguese airspace, Chancellor David Choquehuanca said this afternoon. Spain and Italy later joined those countries. At 10:30 p.m. Defence Minister Rubén Saavedra confirmed to Bolivia TV that France and Portugal revoked their decision. The plane had to make an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria, due to a lack of fuel, Garcia said.

The acting president added: "We know that this barrier to the journey of President Evo has been created by the US government, which is afraid of a peasant, a native, an honest man who defends the sovereignty of our country; it's the peak of a decadent imperial politics, appealing to terror, to fear, to the police control of their own people, of the world, and today of the first native president."

Even making allowances for the rhetoric, it's a pretty breathtaking insult to Bolivia in particular and Latin America in general, and it seems likely to create a lot of friction over much of the hemisphere. And now that I think of it, like the bogus vaccination campaign that the CIA launched in Pakistan to find Bin Laden, this could have repercussions for international public health campaigns all over the Americas.